Chapter 101: Aftermath of a Tragedy (1)

Sakura Garden Academy.

The entire academy fell into chaos when three humans, no, three entities attacked the academy premises. 

There was bloodshed with no apparent end.

Headless corpses lying on the floor. The scene was straight out from a horror movie.

Heart-wrenching cries of despair could be heard from every corner of the academy. Even the teachers of the academy were not spared. The ones who are alive already have dead eyes. They have lost their voices and could only give in to fate.

Among them, a white-haired good-looking young man spread his gaze in the scenery and a smile appeared on his face. He walked up to a girl nearby him.

The girl was on her knees but as if seeing a devil approach her, she tried to summon the last bit of strength in her and wanted to flee. Alas, her mental state had already collapsed. Her quivering chin was lifted as her eyes looked at the devil in front of her. Frightened, her eyes moved from his face.

"Do you know why I left you alive?"

"Hnn… n-no." She replied as soon as she could.

"Hm? You don't know?" The devil's demonic voice rang in her ears. 

"I..I…" 

The devil grinned, then patted her cheeks. "Why are you leaking? It's okay if you don't know the answer. Let me tell you." He suddenly got up and looked at the survivors. "Let me tell all of you! The only reason you are alive is that all of you are evidence!"

Evidence?

The surviving people couldn't properly understand what the devil was saying.

"Evidence! All of you are the reason that we could spread the knowledge of our existence!"

Knowledge of your existence?

Every survivor blanked out. They couldn't digest the fact that the entire Academy broke out just because of a matter as simple as that.

"Pitiful idiots." At this time, a beautiful woman walked out from one of the buildings under the Academy. Unlike her partner-in-crime who looked like a crazy psychopath, she had an arrogant and prideful expression.

"Elder Second! Did you finish? How many did you kill?" The crazy devil stared at the woman with an eager look.

"None of them left." The beautiful woman snorted. "Why bother leaving them alive? They would die anyway."

"There's no fun in that, Elder Second."

"Whatever. Twelfth already left. I'm also leaving. How long are you going to stay here?"

The crazy devil's eyes dropped. "She left? Without telling me? How inconsiderate! I'm going with you."

*Swish*

Just like that, the two mass murderers disappeared in thin air.

"Wha- what was that?" One of the nine survivors spoke out. He was Imada Yoichi. What flashed before his eyes for the past few hours was plain horror. It all started when he was, as usual, chatting with his classmates when the crazy devil entered the classroom and…

Imada's head hurt when he thought about the incidents. He turned his eyes around and saw familiar people. His eyes fixed on one particular girl who seemed traumatized. It was the same girl who got 'interrogated' by the crazy devil a moment ago. 

He got up, his legs shivering. He was about to move forward when he heard a long sigh from nearby.

"This is sad, problematic, and most importantly tiresome." 

Hearing the voice, everyone's gaze turned to a tall brown-haired young man lying on the ground. It was a third-year student from the academy.

Someone can still play a joke at this time and place?

The survivors wanted to retort but were too exhausted to open their mouths.

Ignoring him, Imada walked to the traumatized girl and rubbed her back. "We should be lucky that we are alive."

"I-Imada…" The girl started crying.

"Imada, can you think of any way we can contact overseas?" Following Imada, a fiery red-haired boy also stood up. 

Imada shook his head at his classmate, Koyami Koyashi. He was glad to find out that he still had two of his classmates he was familiar with - Asuka and Koyami.

"Then what do we do?" Asuka asked her eyes towards the ground. As a princess-like figure, it was hard for her to adjust to the sudden developments.

Imada fell quiet.

*Clap*

*Clap*

"Why don't we check the campus to see if anyone's alive? In times like these, we have to stay together." The infirmary nurse, Maki, spoke out.

The rest eight had no objections. 

"Then I'll do the checking." A middle-aged man walked to the nearby quarter.

Imada could feel the man's emotions by just looking at the way he was walking. 'Out of everyone present, the one who suffered the most is undoubtedly Teacher Mitsuhara. Not only had he lost his own daughter, as a teacher who failed to protect his students, but he will also lose his standings as a teacher. It's unfair but that's how life is. What value does nine of us have that the thousands of others similar don't have? Nothing.'

"It's all just fate in the end." Imada sighed. 

"You sound pretty sad? Did something happen?"

Turning back, he saw the third year who was laying in the ground with his bright eyes looking at the sky and bitterly laughed. He didn't even have the energy to be angry at this lunatic. "No, nothing happened."

"You are sad about the death of your friends?"

"I shouldn't be sad?"

"No, you should. It's just that now isn't the correct time or place to mourn."

"Whatever happened had happened."

"Are you an idiot? Did you not hear what that woman said?" The third-year student's words woke the seven who had fallen too deep into philosophy and life up.

"She said… that we would die anyway. Why is that?" Imada finally took the third-year student's words seriously.

"I don't know? How about you try guessing?"

"Dying of starvation?" Asuka was the first one to make a guess. "What if the sea transport route is blocked and we starve to death?"

"Not likely. There are plenty of edible things on the island itself. Besides, her tone suggested immediate death and not something like starving." The third-year student calmly proved her guess wrong.

Everything fell silent.

A few seconds later, Koyami finally broke the silence. "Do you have a guess?"

"I have, in fact, several of them."

The seven people looked at each other. 

"Then please tell your guesses." Koyami was easily angered but even knew his limits. 

"I can talk about it all day but we don't have the time. Just keep in mind that all of them have one thing in common - we are going to get killed if nothing's done."

"Very insightful." Imada dryly laughed. The others also had sullen looks.

"Did the recent event make you turn your five senses off? Look at the wording, idiots! I'm saying we will get 'killed' and not die randomly." The third-year student couldn't hold it any longer and berated them.

"Who is going to kill us?" As if suddenly enlightened, Asuka asked.

Imada, Maki, Imada, and the other second-year students also turned to look at the only third year.

"I don't know. Whoever it is, we just have to get away from it. Or do all of you just want to die?"

"Of course, we want to live but how are we supposed to fight an enemy we don't know anything about?" Imada reasoned with him.

The third-year student smacked his lips in frustration. "Certainly, we can't fight an enemy we don't know about but…"

"What's going on?" At this moment, Teacher Mitsuhara came. 

Maki initially wanted to ask about the teacher's success in finding anyone but seeing his dejected look, she got her answer. 'How are we going to continue like this? No matter how much we try, it's obvious that our fate is doomed.' Remembering her family that lives in the Mainland, her eyes turned moist.

Imada went on to narrate the discussion to the teacher. 

"I think we should leave this place." Teacher Mitsuhara calmly made his judgment. "That is if you guys want to fight for your life. None of you, and don't trust me when I say this. Trust my experience as a Gruer User who went through several life-threatening missions before becoming a teacher. None of you have the ability to charge towards a path that is filled with traps known as 'deaths'. I'm not looking down on you but people aren't half as brave as they think they are."

"We will do it!" Koyami was the first to raise his voice.

Following him, everyone else raised their hands.

Mitsuhara sighed as if he saw this coming. "You still think that you are brave enough? Fine. Let's do what the majority wants."

"Teacher, do you have any idea about what the woman meant when she said that we'll die anyway?"

"It's the beasts." Mitsuhara answered without any hesitation in his tone.

"The beasts? There aren't any signs of beasts anywhere on the island." Imada spoke out in a puzzled manner.